Add hs.styledtext support to hs.chooser

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - I was thinking about using hs.chooser as a font selection tool. Is it possible to add hs.styledtext support to hs.chooser?

To clarify, it would be great if the "text" and "subText" for each individual "choice" could be a hs.styledtext object - so that I could use hs.chooser as a font selection tool (i.e. each result will be displayed as a different font).

[cmsj]

@latenitefilms do you mean to the search box, or the results?

[latenitefilms]

Results would be amazing!

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj & @asmagill - I'm happy to give this a bash myself if one of you can point me in the right direction?

[latenitefilms]

Note to self:

NSAttributedString *theStr;
if (lua_type(L, 1) == LUA_TUSERDATA && luaL_testudata(L, 1, "hs.styledtext")) {
	theStr = [skin luaObjectAtIndex:1 toClass:"NSAttributedString"];
}

[cmsj]

So, I think the branch I just pushed should address this, but I can't get it to actually do anything. I can see from the debugger that NSAttributedString objects are making it into the NSTableView delegate methods and being set on the choice cells, but my quick experiment with it doesn't work:

diff --git a/Spoons/Seal.spoon/seal_apps.lua b/Spoons/Seal.spoon/seal_apps.lua
index 5cb3111..cda6f77 100644
--- a/Spoons/Seal.spoon/seal_apps.lua
+++ b/Spoons/Seal.spoon/seal_apps.lua
@@ -79,7 +79,10 @@ function obj.choicesApps(query)
                 instances = hs.application.applicationsForBundleID(app["bundleID"])
             end
             if #instances > 0 then
-                choice["text"] = name .. " (Running)"
+--                choice["text"] = name .. " (Running)"
+                styled = hs.styledtext.new(name .. " (Running)")
+                styled:setStyle({color=hs.drawing.color.hammerspoon.osx_red}, -9, -1)
+                choice["text"] = styled
             else
                 choice["text"] = name
             end

I've never used hs.styledtext before - am I doing something wrong with it?

[cmsj]

@latenitefilms maybe you could try my branch and let me know if you get any luck with it?

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - Soooooooo close! The subText works, but the text doesn't.

Maybe this line is the issue?

Here's my testing code:

local chooser = require("hs.chooser")
local console = require("hs.console")
local inspect = require("hs.inspect")
local styledtext = require("hs.styledtext")

local completionFn = function(result)
	print(string.format("Result: %s", result and inspect(result)))
end

local fancyText = styledtext.new("First Choice", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 20 },
    })

local fancySubText = styledtext.new("This is the subtext of the first choice", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 20 },
    })

console.printStyledtext(fancyText)
console.printStyledtext(fancySubText)

local choices = {
	{
		["text"] = fancyText,
		["subText"] = fancySubText,
		["uuid"] = "0001"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = "Second Option",
		["subText"] = "I wonder what I should type here?",
		["uuid"] = "Bbbb"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = "Third Possibility",
		["subText"] = "What a lot of choosing there is going on here!",
		["uuid"] = "III3"
	},
}

theChooser = chooser.new(completionFn)
	:choices(choices)
	:show()

[latenitefilms]

Ummm... I'm not sure what's going on. The code you've added definitely seems to get setting text to
an NSAttributedString. Something must be happening to it AFTER - (NSView *)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row?

[cmsj]

@latenitefilms try now?

[latenitefilms]

No luck I'm afraid. subText works fine, text does not, which is weird. hs.styledtext is being passed back in the completionFn.

Here's my test code:

local chooser = require("hs.chooser")
local console = require("hs.console")
local inspect = require("hs.inspect")
local styledtext = require("hs.styledtext")

console.clearConsole()

local completionFn = function(result)
	print(string.format("Result: %s", result and inspect(result)))	
	
	print("text:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.text)
	print("subText:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.subText)

end

local text = styledtext.new("First Choice", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 20 },
    })

local subText = styledtext.new("This is the subtext of the first choice", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 20 },
    })

print("text:")
console.printStyledtext(text)
print("subText:")
console.printStyledtext(subText)

local choices = {
	{
		["text"] = text,
		["subText"] = subText,
		["uuid"] = "1"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = text,
		["subText"] = subText,
		["uuid"] = "2"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = text,
		["subText"] = subText,
		["uuid"] = "3"
	},
}

theChooser = chooser.new(completionFn)
	:choices(choices)
	:show()

This is what it looks like:

Console looks like this:

I'll keep trying to work out why subText works fine, but text doesn't. Very odd.

Thanks for all your help!!

[latenitefilms]

Ok, worked it out!

No idea what this means or how it works, but if you opened up HSChooserWindow.xib the Text Chooser Cell had two "Referencing Outlets", whereas the Sub Text only had one, so I removed the second one to match, and problem solved:

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - Note, you need to remove the second value from both the Text row without the subtext and the one below it without.

[latenitefilms]

This test code:

local chooser = require("hs.chooser")
local console = require("hs.console")
local inspect = require("hs.inspect")
local styledtext = require("hs.styledtext")

console.clearConsole()

local completionFn = function(result)
	print(string.format("Result: %s", result and inspect(result)))	
	
	print("text:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.text)
	print("subText:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.subText)

end

local text = styledtext.new("Styled Text", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 18 },
    })

local subText = styledtext.new("Styled Subtext", {
        color = {hex = "#800000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 10 },
    })

print("text:")
console.printStyledtext(text)
print("subText:")
console.printStyledtext(subText)

local choices = {
	{
		["text"] = text,
		["subText"] = subText,
		["uuid"] = "1"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = "Plain Text",
		["subText"] = "Plain Text Subchoice",
		["uuid"] = "2"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = text,
		["uuid"] = "3"
	},
	{ 
		["text"] = "Plain Text",
		["uuid"] = "3"
	},		
}

theChooser = chooser.new(completionFn)
	:choices(choices)
	:show()

...gives me:

[cmsj]

@latenitefilms good catch! thanks :)

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - Amazing! THANK YOU! Is it worth adding a note that hs.chooser supports hs.styledtext in the in-line documentation?

[cmsj]

Good point :)

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - Not sure what's changed, but this now seems to be broken in 0.9.66?

Using the same test code above, now gives me:

I think maybe something has gone funky in LuaSkin - given we're also seeing this:

#1441 (comment)

Thoughts?

[latenitefilms]

Doh! Sorry - ignore me, I was testing in 0.9.66, rather than the latest master branch.

[latenitefilms]

@cmsj - Ok, I've worked out what's broken - but not sure how to fix.

This works:

local chooser = require("hs.chooser")
local console = require("hs.console")
local inspect = require("hs.inspect")
local styledtext = require("hs.styledtext")

console.clearConsole()

local completionFn = function(result)
	print(string.format("Result: %s", result and inspect(result)))	
	
	print("text:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.text)
	print("subText:")
	console.printStyledtext(result.subText)

end

local text = styledtext.new("Styled Text", {
        color = {hex = "#FF0000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 18 },
    })

local subText = styledtext.new("Styled Subtext", {
        color = {hex = "#800000", alpha = 1},
        font = { name = "Futura", size = 10 },
    })

print("text:")
console.printStyledtext(text)
print("subText:")
console.printStyledtext(subText)

local choices = {}

for i, v in pairs(styledtext.fontNames()) do
	local choice = {}	
	if string.sub(v, 1, 1) ~= "." then 
		local displayName = styledtext.fontInfo(v).displayName
		choice.text = styledtext.new(displayName, {
			font = { name = v, size = 18 },
		})
		choice.subText = ""
		choice.uuid = choice.text
		table.insert(choices, choice)
	end		
end

theChooser = chooser.new(completionFn)
	:choices(choices)
	:show()

...but if you remove choice.subText = "", then it only shows plain text?

Any ideas?